MOBILE, Alabama -- Mobile City Council members continued to deadlock over the details of a proposed citywide teen curfew this afternoon with no clear compromise reached after a tense 3-hour debate.

Council members and Mayor Sam Jones, who originally proposed a curfew, disagreed about where to house kids in violation whose parents can’t be found and whether to immediately impose both daytime and nighttime restrictions

In the end, several council members who attended today’s special committee meeting agreed to look at a draft ordinance that would roll out both curfews over the next year.

A nighttime curfew would start Nov. 1, followed by a daytime curfew on Jan. 1. Both policies would be in place through 2012. During the summer, when kids are not in school, the daytime curfew would automatically be lifted.

At the end of 2012, the council would vote again on extending the curfews or would allow them to expire.

The question remained, though, as to whether that ordinance would get the five votes needed for approval.

Six council members, including the three who make up the curfew committee, attended the meeting. Councilman Fred Richardson was absent.

Jones originally proposed a curfew that would prohibit minors from roaming the streets or any other public place, including businesses and other places of commerce, after 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and midnight Friday and Saturday.

The same prohibition would have generally applied for school-age children from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on schooldays.

That measure never came up for a vote after Council President Reggie Copeland led a move to amend it, stripping out the daytime curfew and keeping the remainder to a short trial period.

Councilwoman Bess Rich said she was concerned that a daytime curfew would be focused on the public school calendar, but many of her residents attend private school. Police would then be stopping children who aren't in violation of the curfew, she said.

Jones' original proposal also would have created a curfew center at the city's Western Administrative Complex near Langan Park.

Chief says he's not trying to take innocent kids to jail

Jones and Police Chief Michael Williams told the council that they could not accept an alternative proposal to house the center at Strickland Youth Center because the proposed room was too much like a jail.

"I'm not trying to take our children, that have not committed a crime, to a jail," Williams said.

A curfew violation would not be a criminal charge, city attorneys said, but would be a "status offense" regulating the behavior of teens because of their young age.

Most kids picked up after-house would be taken to parents or another responsible adult, city officials said, and only about 60 kids ever be taken to the center.

Councilwoman Gina Gregory, meanwhile, said she would not vote for any curfew if it meant housing the center near Langan Park, in her district.

Jones insisted that the selection of a location was an administrative duty, not a decision to be made by the City Council in legislation.

He offered to take that location out of consideration if he was allowed to singularly pick another spot.